A Village Feud (18 page)

Elijah has just come in, with devastating news. Michael has been found dead in a local rubbish tip. Elijah declares it is because of what he allowed to happen when the uprising was on. I pray to God there is no revenge for his death
.

I do hope the children are recovering well. I think of you all every day, and wish I was with you, but for the moment I am bent on succeeding here. Then I can, with no conscience whatever, come home and stay there. I fancy fishing with Alex, swimming with Beth and a pleasant evening reading and talking with my very dear wife
.

Elijah and Winsome send their love. So do I. Much love, in fact, all my love to the three of you
.

Peter

Just as she finished reading Caroline heard Alex’s key in the door, and quickly erased Peter’s e-mail so he wouldn’t be able to read it.

‘Darling! Good day? The usual?’

‘Yes, please.’ He sat down at the kitchen table and asked, ‘Where’s Beth?’

‘In bed.’

‘I’ll go see her.’

‘She may not speak.’

Alex looked at Caroline. Caroline looked at Alex and thought, he looked more like his father every day. There was Peter’s kind of strength about him, and his compassion, too. He’d become a grown-up in Africa.

‘Why not?’

‘I don’t know.’ She went to get the milk out of the fridge and Alex went up the stairs two at a time.

‘Beth, what’s up?’ He jiggled her foot to get her attention.

‘Alex?’

‘Yes.’

The rising hysteria in her voice alarmed him. ‘Alex, I heard Mummy on the phone organizing going back to general practice. I can’t bear it. I’ll have to go to school. She won’t do it, will she?’

‘Come out from under the duvet. I can’t tell what you’re saying.’

Beth slowly emerged, hot and tousled.

‘Sit up and shape up. It’s me, you can talk to me.’

Beth, as she’d always done, did as he said and told him again.

Alex smiled sympathetically. ‘Look, I’m sure Mum wouldn’t go back to general practice knowing it would mean you going back to school when you don’t want to. I’m going downstairs to ask her, right now.’

Beth shot under the duvet again and Alex went to ask Caroline.

‘Mum. Beth’s frightened to death she’ll have to go back to school. She’s got the idea you’re returning to general practice. Are you?’

‘No, I am not. She must have overheard me on the phone. They rang up to see if I could go back because they’ve a maternity leave problem but if she’d listened a while longer she’d have found out I refused. Go and tell her.’

‘You mustn’t, you know, Mum. She must
not
and I mean
not
be left alone. She needs you.’

‘Does she? Then why won’t she tell me what troubles her? I’ve tried one way and another and keep hoping, but she won’t breathe a word to me. The days go by and she makes no progress at all. Come to think of it, neither of you will tell me what has made you so afraid. Can
you
not tell me?’

Alex didn’t reply.

‘If your father were here you’d tell him, I bet. Is it because I’m not your natural mother? Is that it? I feel as though I am, and always have done.’

Alex stood in the doorway, unable to find words to express why they couldn’t tell Caroline what had happened. ‘It’s not that. We just can’t, that’s all.’ He turned on his heel and went upstairs.

Alex relayed Caroline’s message to Beth and immediately she cheered up. She took in a deep breath and said, ‘That’s a relief. I need more time. I’m not brave like you.’

‘I’m not brave. I just pretend to be, I’m terribly afraid, so I keep plugging away doing normal things, hoping it will all go away, but it doesn’t. But we’d no alternative, had we?’

Beth shook her head. ‘None. I still shudder when I—’

Alex urgently said, ‘Don’t. Don’t think about it. Push it to the back of your mind. Dad’ll be home before we know it, then we can tell
him
. We’ve just got to make things as normal as we can till he’s back.’

Beth put her arms round Alex’s neck and hugged him to her. ‘He’ll have the answers. I might make a target of getting back to school in the New Year. I’ve been to the Store and bought us some of Harriet’s gateau. Tell Mum it’s in the fridge. I’ll be down in a minute. We can have it now instead of toast.’

Alex was amazed. ‘You’ve been
out
?’

Beth nodded. ‘I was frightened to death and nearly didn’t make it, but I did.’

‘That’s good. I’m glad. Once you do it, it’s not too bad. I’m all right at school, and going on the school bus is fine. I couldn’t go on public transport, though. I still don’t do games and I’ve explained why – all that open space; I just can’t cope – and they say, “Fine, when you’re ready.” You’d be OK if you tried it. On the school bus. We could sit together.’

Beth flung back the duvet and put her feet on the floor. ‘I’m coming down. But I’m not going to school. Not yet.’

So the three of them sat round the kitchen table and ate their gateau, got chocolate moustaches and chocolatey fingers, and licked them and laughed. Caroline began to feel hopeful and didn’t say a word of praise to Beth for going to the Store all on her own. She thought accepting it as perfectly normal was by far the best thing to do. She felt enormously cheered.

*

Jimbo found that Beth getting as far as the Store was the only thing that lifted his spirits that day. But the regret that everyone expressed about the store closing down almost persuaded him he shouldn’t close it. Harriet, of course, and his mother were stupefied by his decision.

‘Look, Jimbo, we’re having a bad run – your ankle, the windows and the poison pen letters all sent to try us – but we’ll get over it like we’ve done before. Remember when Fran was born and Flick had her accident? We didn’t know which way to turn, and our world appeared to fall in on top of us, but we survived. Didn’t we?’

‘I agree. But nothing you say can change my mind. Health and Safety are coming tomorrow, they rang to say. So that beggar has informed them like he said he would. I could kill him.’

‘You’re in no fit state to kill anyone so you can pipe down. At least if we’re closing it might take the ground from under their feet, whoever it is. Might make them pack it up, eh?’ She grabbed him by his shoulders and gave him a shake. ‘Love you!’

Jimbo kissed her. ‘Thank you for getting on so well with my mother.’

‘She’s a brick. She’s needed, that’s why she’s easier to get on with. You’re to have tomorrow off, right? Your mother and I have planned it. You can do as you like … so long as it’s nothing.’

‘Can’t. Health and Safety day.’

‘Let’s put it this way: if I get an emergency with him I’ll send for you. OK?’

Jimbo had to confess to himself that he could manage a day doing nothing very nicely indeed. He’d take the chance while he could. Then an appalling feeling of guilt overwhelmed him. This wasn’t the Jimbo of old. What had happened to him? Old age? Surely not.

Jimbo might have thought things couldn’t get worse but the following morning Tom was on the phone by a quarter past seven. ‘Jimbo, Tom here. Sorry to be ringing so early, but … well, I might as well tell you straight off. You’ve to be told, I have to say it. Someone’s thrown bright red paint all over the front of the Store. Both windows and the door, most on the glass, some on the brickwork.’

There was prolonged silence from Jimbo’s end of the phone. Then eventually Jimbo said, ‘I’ll be there. Don’t let anyone tread it into the Store, right?’ Wryly he added, ‘I don’t suppose they left an address?’

‘No.’

‘Thought not.’ He put the receiver down and gave Harriet a gentle shake. ‘Darling, I’ve got to go.’

‘Where to?’

‘To the Store. Don’t get upset.’

‘There must be something wrong or you wouldn’t say that.’

‘Tom’s rung to say someone’s thrown red paint all over the shop front.’

Harriet flung herself back onto her pillows. ‘I can’t believe this. Right, I’m coming with you.’ She flung the duvet off and put her feet on the floor, then paused. ‘Oh, God, I feel terrible.’

‘You’ve got up too quickly. I’ll have a quick wash and then I’m off. Shan’t shave. Bring some old cloths with you, when you come, I’m taking my spare petrol can, there’s a couple of gallons in there which should do the trick.’ He said all this while hurriedly throwing on the clothes he’d taken off the night before.

Harriet made a move to get up – she felt so desperately sorry for him. ‘Don’t let anyone light a cigarette. I won’t be long.’

When Harriet arrived with a heap of cloths, she was appalled at what she saw. The venom which had initiated this wild attack was too frightening even to contemplate.

Jimbo was pouring petrol into a bucket so he and Tom could soak the cloths in it. ‘Good. Lots of cloths. That’s the spirit.’

‘You need rubber gloves. I’ll get some.’

‘Mind where you walk!’

She stepped as carefully as she could between the streams of red paint trickling along the pavement and under the seat out at the front. Tears were very close to the surface. She’d promised Jimbo a day doing nothing – what a hope.

Harriet rang the police before Tom and Jimbo started cleaning the front. They promised to come immediately. When they came they went through the usual questioning procedure and finished by saying, ‘Mrs Charter-Plackett, is there anyone you can think of who has a grudge against you?’

‘The only person we know is someone called Andy Moorhouse. He lives next door to the Rectory. He’s been bringing food back he claims he’s bought from us and asking for a refund because he says it’s gone off. Last time Jimbo refused to refund him the money and told him not to shop here again. He’s the only one we know who might have a grudge.’

‘It wasn’t genuine, then?’

‘Absolutely not. We’re extremely conscientious about selling fresh food. Ask the Health and Safety – they know how careful we are.’

‘Next to the Rectory? Right. We’ll go knock him up.’

‘Mr Andy Moorhouse?’

Andy was still in his pyjamas, unwashed and unshaven, and therefore did not make much of an impression on a hardened officer of twenty years’ experience. He was edgy was Mr Andy Moorhouse. Very edgy.

‘That’s me.’

‘We’re making house-to-house inquiries about the paint that’s been thrown all over the front of the Village Store. I wondered if you’d heard anything during the night. Sounds of a vehicle pulling up, someone talking, movements or anything at all that will help us with our inquiries.’

‘Is that all? I thought at least we must be at war. Coming knocking on our door at this time in the morning. It’s not a national emergency. Come back later when I’ve had time to shower and dress. Honestly. This is harassment.’ He slammed the door in his face.

The police officer made a mark in his notebook, and rang the doorbell again.

This time Andy flung open the door and came out fighting. ‘What is it this time?’

‘Same thing. Look, you can see for yourself.’ He pointed across the Green towards the Store and noticed that Andy didn’t trouble to look.

‘All right, all right. Why you should imagine I have anything at all to do with throwing paint all over the shop I have no idea. I’m a law-abiding social worker.’

‘In Culworth?’

‘Yes.’

The officer made another note in his little black book. ‘Telephone number so I can verify that?’

‘In the phonebook, if you must, though why you can’t take my word for it, I don’t know.’ Andy began bristling with temper, although he knew doing so would not give the best of impressions to a police officer who obviously wasn’t wet behind the ears. ‘Now, have you finished harassing me?’

‘No.’ He studied his notebook a while longer. ‘Do you have a grudge against Mr Charter-Plackett?’

‘I’ve no grudge against anyone. Everyone’s very pleasant here, there’s never any trouble.’

‘A grudge about your claim that his food is not sold in accordance with best practice.’

‘Me? No.’ Andy caught a determined glint in the police officer’s eye. ‘Well, I have caught him out a time or two but we settled it like gentlemen should.’ Andy gave a happy laugh, but it sounded very hollow to the officer.

‘But he refused to recompense you last time. Mr Charter-Plackett was convinced it was all a set-up, and refused to allow you to shop in there any more. In my book I’d have been very angry, especially if my complaints were genuine.’

‘They were genuine, but in my job you get used to setbacks, can’t let them affect you.’ Andy smiled and shrugged. ‘What of it? I’m in Culworth every day, no hassle. He’s the loser. In any case, with him closing we’ll have no alternative soon.’

The black notebook was closed. ‘Very true, sir. So, you can’t help us at all? There might be something that strikes you, though. Any little thing, no matter how insignificant, let us know.’

‘Certainly. I’ve nothing to hide.’ He smiled brightly. ‘Only too glad to help.’